Professional Photographer: REVIEW: This LED light nails performance and price

As LED lighting becomes a more viable option for still and motion photography, it’s important to look for a balance between high output, high quality light, cost, and size. The Lustra 50 from PRL Lighting fits that bill. For still photography the Lustra 50 is bright enough to use as a key or fill light for close-up work like still life and head-and-shoulders portraits or as an on camera light for event shooters. It’s equally well suited for small-scale video production.

The Lustra 50 has the light quality and sturdy build of large, cinema-grade products from Litepanels, Cineo, and Arriflex in a compact 7.7×4.5×2.17-inch form. This makes it small enough, and at 0.985 pounds light enough, to fit comfortably in a camera’s hot shoe mount or on a light stand, though you will need to supply your own adapter to mount it on a camera. The product’s 50 surface-mount micro-processor-controlled LEDs are arranged in a 5×10 array for wide-angle coverage, perfect for on-camera use when photographing events with or without the 12×8-inch SofBox accessory.